sneezing, vbl. n.
(ˈsniːzɪŋ)
Also 5 snesynge, 6 sneesyng, 6–8 -ing, 7 Sc. sneisin(g, snising, snizing.
[f. sneeze v.]
1. a. The action of the verb; an instance of this.
| 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xvii. cxxxi. 688 Powder therof [sc. of pepper] makyth snesynge [Bodl. MS. fnesinge]. 1545 T. Raynalde Byrth Mankynde 67 Farthermore she muste be prouoked to sneesyng. 1580 Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Esternuëment, a sneesing. 1615 Crooke Body of Man 523 In sternutations or sneezings. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. 200 Aristotle hath a Probleme, why sneezing from noone unto midnight was good, but from night to noon unlucky. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 220 Sneesing promotes the Motion of the Blood, and excites the Pulse. 1770 Langhorne Plutarch (1851) I. 138/1 A Sneezing was heard from the right. 1818 E. Thompson Cullen's Nosologia (1820) 203 Contagious inflammatory fever with sneezing. 1844 Dickens Mart. Chuz. xiv, He was taken with a violent fit of sneezing. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 98 Abnormal visceral or reflex movements, such as..sneezings, yawnings, or hiccoughings. |
| fig. 1691 Beverley 1000 Yrs. Kingd. 31 From Time to Time..there have been Sneesings by a Power of God, as I may so express it, of this Prophecy. |
b. pl. Matter emitted in sneezing.
rare—1.
| 1607 Topsell Four-f. Beasts (1658) 431 The sneezings of a Musk-cat is an excellent remedy against the resolution of the sinews or the Palsie. |
† 2. a. A preparation or powder inducing sternutation; an errhine or sternutatory.
Obs.| 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. v. ii. iv, Sneesings, masticatories and nasalls, are generally receiued. 1632 tr. Bruel's Praxis Med. 61 A sneezing of pepper, Hellebore. 1653 W. Ramesey Astrol. Restored 119 Of the administration of gargarisms, or sneezings, and such like. |
† b. Snuff.
Obs. (
Cf. sneeshing 1.)
| 1648 Dunfermline Kirk Sess. Rec. (1865) 25 Those that offers and takes snising in the kirk. 1672 Essex Papers (Camden Soc.) 7 Who euer sels Ale, Tobacco, Sneezinge Broges, &c. is an Irish Merchant. ? c 1680 F. Sempill in Poems Sempills (1849) 70 A mill of good snizing to prie. 1720 Swift Irish Feast Wks. 1755 IV. i. 27 Give us a pinch Of your sneezing. |
3. attrib. and
Comb. a. as
sneezing-coffer,
sneezing-maker,
sneezing-mill,
sneezing-powder,
sneezing-tobacco;
sneezing gas = sneeze gas s.v. sneeze n. 3.
| 1611 Cotgr., Sternutatoire, a sneezing medicine, or powder. a 1616 Beaum. & Fl. Kt. of Malta ii. iv, Bring a little sneezing powder in your pocket. 1626 Bacon Sylva §38 Sneezing-powder and other powders or Liquors (which the Physitians call Errhines). 1643 Dunfermline Kirk Sess. Rec. (1865) 12 Those who..taks y{supr} sneising tobacco in the most remott..pairt of y⊇ said yle. 1659 in Macgill Old Ross-sh. (1909) 377 Walter Denune, sneisin maker. 1681 S. Colvil Whig's Supplic. ii. 134 And there his Sneezing Milne and Box lyes. 1812 J. H. Vaux Flash Dict., Sneezer or Sneezing-Coffer, a snuff-box. 1918 H. H. Tudor Let. 13 Nov. in M. Gilbert Winston S. Churchill (1977) IV. Companion i. 415 The shell you speak of may be sneezing gas, which is not deadly. 1939 H. F. Thuillier Gas in Next War xvi. 145 The General Disarmament Conference of the League of Nations sitting in 1932 sought to divide the known chemical war agents into..two categories [lethal and non-lethal], and to obtain agreement for the use of the non-lethal kind, i.e. the lachrimatory (tear gases) and the sternutatory (sneezing gases) in war. 1979 Guardian 25 Aug. 12/6 Soup..always tastes the same when you have accidentally emptied the pot of fine grey sneezing powder into it. 1982 London Mag. June 31 Once he bought sneezing-powder from the joke-shop in New Oxford Street. |
† b. sneezing-wort,
= sneezewort.
Obs.| 1611 Cotgr. s.v. Esternuer, Sneesingwort, or sneesewort of Austria, wild Pellitorie of Spaine. 1682 Wheler Journ. Greece iii. 219 With long sharp leaves, with streight Nerves, in shape like Sneezing Woort. 1741 Compl. Family Piece ii. iii. 397 You have now in Flower the..double Ptarmica or Sneezing-wort. |
c. sneezing brick (see
quot.).
| 1887 Archit. Soc. Dict. VII. 97 Sneezing Brick, one of the names given to the burnt bricks which case the clamp before burning. |